May 22, 2008

Black Forest Cake and my second award !!


Wooow!! Is this great or what?? Am I dreaming? Two awards in two days!? Yes, it happened. Trupti presented with me my very first award yesterday and now Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen corner has thought of me when she was passing on the "You make my day" award! Thanks a lot Ranji, I am truly honored and I really appreciate your gesture! It has really made all of my days to come!


I would like to pass it on to:

Trupti of Recipe Center
Swati of Chatkhor
Sunita of Sunita's World
Sangeeth of Art of Cooking Indian Food

And to the rest of you, you all make my day by visiting my blog, leaving comments and encouraging me to continue! So on that happy note, I will share the recipe for a sweet and sinful black forest cake.

I made this for a get-together with JM's collegues. This is basically a devil's food cake with light cherry filling and whipped cream topping. We had a great time at JP & NB's place. If you guys are reading this, I just wanted to let you two know that you were fantastic hosts and we had a great time getting to know the three of you (and others too!!). And lil 'V' is just adorable!! He is such a well-behaved boy and a good host too! When it was time for us to leave (almost midnight!!) my lil girl didnt want to leave and she wanted to continue partying!! I wonder if she even knows what a party is! Anyways, we had a blast at their place. I hope they enjoyed having us over.

Coming back to the cake, once again, I made this with a cake mix ( I am sorry, I tend to take the easy way out when I am making the cake for somebody else. I want to make sure I wont make any mistakes!).


Recipe:

Devil's food cake mix - 1 package
Eggs - 3, as on the package
Vegetable oil - as on the package
Water - as on the package

Lite cherry pie filling - 1 can
Whipped cream/ Cool whip - 1 tub (8 0z)
Maraschino cherries with stems - 8


Method:

I mixed the Devil's food cake according to package instructions.

To prepare the pan, I lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and just greased and floured the sides.

The cake was baked in an 8" by 3" round cake pan, so it took about 55 minutes to bake.

Once the cake was cooled, I cut off the dome of the cake and reserved it.

Then cut the remaining cake into two equal layers.

Open the can for the cherry pie filling and reserve the juice.

On the cake board, I placed the upper layer of the cake.

Pipe a dam of whipped cream around the rim of the cake layer so that the filling does not escape to the outer surface.

The two cake layers were soaked using the reserve cherry pie filling juice.

Filled the surface within the whipped cream dam with a uniform layer of the cherry pie filling.

Placed the second cake layer on top.

Generously frosted the sides and top of the two layered cake with cool whip/ whipped cream.

Smoothed it out as fine as possible.

Crumbled the soft parts (not the harder crust) of the cake dome reserved finely using my hands.

Stuck the cake crumbs to the sides of the cake as uniformly as possible.

Topped the cake with eight swirls of whipped cream at uniform intervals.

Placed a cherry with stem one each of the swirl.

Finally, decorated the centre with chocolate curls/shavings or finely grated chocolate.


Tips:
  1. To soak the cake layers, you can thin down the juice with water and then sweeten it to your liking. Use it to moisten the cake. I actually did not soak the layers through, but used just a little bit of juice to add a wee bit of moisture to the cake.
  2. I thinned down the juice with a tablespoon or so of water and added just a teaspoon of sugar because the tart cherry filling within the sweet cake would be just right!
  3. To decorate the center, place a cookie cutter ( I used a crinkled round cutter) and then spread the grated chocolate inside the cutter to from a design.

Fun Fact:

Did you know that the actual German version of black forest cake uses Kirschwasser (alcohol) whereas the American cakes are prepared without any alcohol? (wiki)

I am sending this post as my entry to Great Cooks Community's first food event: Kid Friendly Cooking. I have no doubt that all kids would love to eat this tasty and creamy black forest cake and this is definitely a kid friendly recipe! Dont forget to be a part of the Great Cooks Community where members can get to know each other, share recipes and tips!

23 comments:

ranji said...

OMG!!!JZ this is simply gorgeous!!one of my fav cake...looks just like a store bought black forest cake...soooooooo delicious...fabulous photos too..love it love it love it..:)

Sangeeth said...

wow! ur cake is sooo tempting...very nice pics....mouthwatering..btw thank you very much for passing the award to me and making my day :)

sunita said...

JZ, the cake looks perfect :-)...congrats on the award and thanks for making my day too :-)

Trupti said...

JZ, cake looks very beautiful & yummy, nice decoration.

Congrats on your awards. Enjoy ur award.

Thanks for passing me the award. I am so happy about this.

I have one question for you. I like your tamplate. What is the name of template?

Anonymous said...

That cake looks too delicious. Thnx for sharing the recipe!

www.zaiqa.net

Bhags said...

u said live in the twin cities, didnt you....can you let me know ur address, i am coming there for this cake.....its amazing....:P

Congrats for the awards, JZ...

On a serious note, where in MN are you.....i live to the south side of twin cities

Mansi said...

that looks beautiful girl! always a treat!:) congrats on the award:)!

Anonymous said...

Cake looks really yummy and like store bought ones:-))
planning to make ur soup..Jo is donw with cold and cough..

Suganya said...

WOW!... That was a rocking cake. Looks so YUM!... Beautiful looking cake. Great JOB!... Hay I have something for u in my blog...

TBC said...

The cake looks lovely. Who cares if it has been made using a mix! :D

Swati Raman Garg said...

thanks thanks ... u made my day again... and r u kidding.. u made this one urself.. hats off buddy

Unknown said...

wow..this looks divine.. :-)
congrats on the award !!!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

May I please have a slice with a cherry on top? :)

@the_whisk_affair said...

Hey Ranji! Thanks for your enthusiastic response!

Sangeeth, Sunita and Trupti, thanks for the comments and you gals deserve the award!

Thanks a lot Mona, Bhags, Mansi and Sonia.

Thanks Sukanya, I wonder what it is..!

Hiya TBC, thanks for the support!! :-)

Thanks Swati and Meenakshy :-)

Hey Susan, yes you may! Help yourself!! :-)

Felcy said...

JZ.. First time to your blog... OMG.. Amazing pics in ur blog... PIcs looks very professional.. Very creative...

Anonymous said...

wooooooooooooow.

u havw wonderful website and recipes are cooooooooooooool. U r posting daily one recipe, as soon i get up from bed i visit your website first to see what u cooked today, so exiting to see your post.

keep it up and teach us some more, ye dil mangae more

Richa said...

the cake looks sooooo tempting :) very well done, jz!

Unknown said...

love the frosting over the cake..loooks gorgeous with the cherries

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks Felcy, Anonymous, Richa and Divya Vikram!

Shubha Ravikoti said...

Jz.... this cake looks awesomeeeeeeee.... I love it so much...So wt if its made with a cake mix... I love it... Its such an easy idea to make the amazing cake.... thanx dear.. will surely try it...try to show it stepwise next time.. it will be easier for dumbs like me :D

by the way this is the first time Iam visiting your blog and its awesome...:) do check my blog too sometime..

Cham said...

Hey this cake looks amazing, u r a cake pro :) I adore this black forest and congrats on ur award

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks Shubha and Cham!

bee said...

that's a gorgeous cake!!! thanks for dropping by!